


Sugar, spice and everything vice

by starsandnightskies



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Detective!AU, M/M, ash and lou are half-brothers, boston pd, detective!louis, fools in love basically, hipster!harry, it's Rizzoli&Isles really, medical examiner!Harry, they're detectives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 13:10:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2026323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsandnightskies/pseuds/starsandnightskies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis is a homicide detective and Harry is the chief medical examiner. It only takes them a kidnapping to realize they love each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sugar, spice and everything vice

**Author's Note:**

> I've worked on this for ages and I forgot my idea for the plot about five times soooo.... hope you enjoy it anyway! Title taken from the tag line from Rizzoli & Isles which is also where this is based on.

**Sugar, spice and everything vice**

“Tomlinson, d’you want coffee?” a voice yells at him from the café on the ground floor of the Boston Police Department building.

“Of course, Mikey, you know I never say no to coffee. What do you have?” He enters the café and he smothers a laugh when he sees blue-haired Michael with an apron tied around his waist. He looks grumpier than ever, but Louis would probably look grumpy too if someone forced him to put on that god-awful apron.

“Not a fucking word”, he warns. “There’s vanilla latte and apparently we now have a pumpkin latte too? I don’t know, man.”

“Do you also have like normal coffee? Just black? I’ll throw in some sugar. Where’s Calum?”

“He took the day off, I don’t know. The normal coffee’s over there.” And Michael points at the table across the café. Louis spots a tall figure with messy, brown curls in designer jeans and those God-awful boots he refuses to throw out. “And Harry’s over there too.”

“Thanks Mikey.” Louis salutes him and walks over to Harry. “Morning Harry.”

“Good morning Louis. Are you finally going to try green tea this morning?”

“Green tea?” Louis scrunches up his face. “You’re not bloody serious.”

“It’s very healthy, it lowers your cholesterol levels and it is even said it reduces coronary artery disease. Did you know it was first grown in China but now it has become associated with many other Asian cultures?” Harry asks him, completely serious and sipping from his mug.

“Coronary what? Anyway, I love my caffeine in the morning, so no thank you.”

“Too much caffeine is very unhealthy, Louis. Have you been plagued by nervousness or restlessness lately? Or an increased heartbeat?”

“Yeah yeah, that’s enough, doctor Styles”, Louis says and he sips from his coffee.

Harry shrugs and takes another sip of his green tea. “Just telling you the facts.”

Louis rolls his eyes. “Come on, I’ve got some paperwork to do from the shooting incident last week and you’re much better with statistics.”

“So you mean _I_ have some paperwork to do? Bye Mikey, thanks for the tea.”

Louis presses the button of the elevator. “Yeah. I could probably get Ashton to do it as well. He’d do anything to get promoted to homicide detective.” He snorts.

“Don’t be so mean to your half-brother. I think he’s a lovely person.”

“Yeah, but Harry, you’d say the same about a serial killer who donates you a pair of kidneys for research.” The elevator dings and they get in.

“Ashton is a nice guy”, Harry says defensively and the elevator dings again at the first floor, where the homicide offices are.

“Thanks Harry”, Ashton says and Louis pushes him and swats his arm.

“Oh yeah, that’s mature, Louis, very mature.”

“Whatever. What are you doing on this floor anyway? Isn’t there like a car accident somewhere in Boston?” Louis snickers. He remembers how much he _hated_ being on traffic duty.

“Shut up”, and Ashton pushes him back.

“Hey, mind the coffee!”

“You two really need to grow up”, Hemmings says but he’s smiling. “Oh, Irwin, you’ve been temporarily promoted to homicide detective because Malik’s in hospital and we need to fill his place until he gets back.”

Louis gasps, maybe a little too dramatic but hey, Zayn’s a friend. “What happened to him?”

“Nothing major, I think he got into a fight. With one of Horan’s dogs.” Louis notices by his barely hidden smile he finds it quite dumb too. Louis still actually can’t believe his boss is five years younger than him and he still looks so boyish but, like Horan once said, he’s got a lot of experience from being in the drug unit for years so no one ever doubts him.

“He’ll be fine, right?”

“Of course”, Hemmings nods.

“I’m promoted to homicide detective”, Ashton breathes in awe.

“Temporarily”, Hemmings adds.

“Same difference. When do we start? Where do we go?”

To be honest, he looks like a kid on Christmas morning, Louis thinks. “Ash, down.”

“You’re ruining my mood.”

“That’s what half-brothers are for.”

“Be nice to each other”, Harry scolds them and they immediately point accusingly at each other.

“Save yourself the trouble, Styles. They can keep bickering forever”, Hemmings says and he retreats into his office.

Harry sighs deeply. “Can’t you two just be nice to each other for once?”

“No”, they say together.

So Harry throws his hands in the air (nearly throwing his tea all over Ashton) and gives up. “You’re hopeless. Both of you.”

“That’s not very nice of you”, Louis says. “You’d help me with my paperwork.”

“I don’t believe I said that.”

“He probably didn’t”, Ashton supplies.

“You need to shut up, Irwin.”

“How about you shut up, Tomlinson?”

“Irwin, Tomlinson, stop. We have a case to work on”, Niall says, throwing a toffee at Ashton’s head. It falls into Louis’ coffee but he doesn’t notice it.

“Case? What case?” Ashton’s like a dog seeing a large bone to chew on.

“I just got a call from someone at Boston Central Park. Said they found a body. With a message.”

“Message?”

❄

Seeing a dead body is something Louis is used to. What he isn’t used to is a killer who leaves his victim in the middle of a park, in plain sight with a message on their chest. He glances at Harry from the corner of his eye. He looks pale, even more so than usual. Not very strange. The message on the victim’s body is addressed to Harry Styles, chief medical examiner of the Boston police department.

“Harry, are you alright?” Ashton asks and Harry takes a deep breath, collecting himself before nodding.

“I’m fine.” He puts on his gloves and intends to pick up the letter but Louis beats him to it.

“Harry, I don’t think it’s such a good idea if you read it first”, he says quietly. “Who knows what might be in it. Can you examine our victim?” Harry nods and swallows. He’s never been directly addressed by a murderer before. “Ash, come here.” Ashton approaches him and they read the note together. It’s put together cleverly, letters from newspapers cut out so there’s no possibility of locating the killer by handwriting.

_Harry Styles, chief medical examiner of the Boston police department._

_It is revenge._

“What do they mean with revenge?” Ashton says. He looks a little nauseous.

“I think the meaning of the word revenge is pretty obvious, Ashton”, Louis sighs. “Harry, come here.” He lets the younger man read the note and proceeds to ask him if he knows anyone that might be getting revenge on him.

“I don’t know”, Harry says shakily. “But I know I’m a bit scared.”

“Louis, isn’t there a myth or something about killers who like to admire their work?” Ashton whispers to the two of them.

“Some of them do”, Harry says. “Why do you ask?”

“Because there’s a suspicious looking guy at the edge of the area we cleared”, he says. He smacks his hand over Louis’ mouth when he wants to yell at the person. “Seriously? I thought you were the experienced detective here. If you yell at him, he’ll certainly be gone before we catch him.”

“Sorry”, Louis mumbles. “I’m just a bit off today, I guess.”

“You weren’t so off when you were arguing with me this morning.”

“Shut up”, he hisses.

“Can you just catch that guy instead of arguing who’s the better half-brother?” Niall says irritated.

“I’ll do that”, Louis says before Ashton can say anything. He approaches the guy carefully, pretending to be searching for evidence and glancing up at the mysterious guy every now and then. But when he gets at the place the guy was standing not a minute ago, he’s gone. Disappeared. Vanished into thin air. However you want to say it. Poof.

“Jesus Christ Louis! How could you just lose him?” Ashton yells at him.

“Irwin, stop yelling. It’s unprofessional”, Niall sighs. He’s been sighing a lot, lately, Louis notices.

“Well, _Ashton,_ I looked up and he was gone.”

“Tell me you got at least a look at his face.”

“I did not.”

“How did you ever get promoted to homicide detective?” Ashton wonders. “No, don’t answer that. I don’t think I actually want to know.”

“I hate you.”

“Please stop”, Harry says. “We haven’t even attempted to find out who our victim is. Let’s just do that and find the cause of death before we do anything else. Okay?” It’s pretty sad that the _chief medical examiner_ needs to tell them how to do their job, really. Harry’s not even a detective. Louis gives Ashton the evil eye once more and Harry slaps him upside the head gently. “Stop that, Lou. We need to focus. This poor girl deserves to get her killer behind bars.”

❄

“Do we have a name yet?” Louis asks when he enters Harry’s lab.

“Alice Grace”, he answers. “Liam ran her prints.”

“Cause of death?”

“Her windpipe was crushed and there are footprints on her neck so I assume, and you know I hate guessing, that someone stepped on her windpipe and crushed it. But I’m not entirely sure. The strange thing is, though, that she’s been dead for at least a few months, I’d say about four.”

“Her body doesn’t look like it should after four months.”

“It’s because she’s been kept in a fridge. Look at her toes, they’re purple.”

“I’d rather not look at her toes, thanks.” Louis feels his stomach churn at the idea of someone keeping a body in a fridge for four months. He usually handles the bodies pretty well, but not the stories behind the murders. He doesn’t understand, most of the time. Murdering out of anger for someone who’s hurt or bullied you for years is one thing. Murdering because you like it is something else.

“Louis, could you go and see if she’s been reported missing? She’s young, she has a family. Someone should’ve noticed she was gone”, Harry says, looking down at the corpse of Alice Grace sadly.

“Yeah, I’ll have Ashton check our databases”, Louis answers. He takes a glance at the girl’s face. She looks peaceful, quiet. “Do we have any leads on the killer? DNA, finger prints, anything?”

“No, nothing”, Harry says. “Whoever the killer is, they’re smart. The body is wiped clean of anything that might lead us to the killer.”

“Which might tell us that he knows what he’s doing. He’s had experience with murdering.”

“We can’t be sure of that.”

“But we have to guess, as much as you hate guessing.”

“I think she was protecting someone”, Harry then says. He points out finger-shaped bruises on her right side. “She has bruises on her left arm, possibly from trying to fight someone off. Most people are right-handed and thus fight with their right arm first. My guess is that she had someone clutching to her right side and, trying to protect them, she fought with her left hand.”

“But she was murdered anyway”, Louis says. “That’s sad. But it also means we might have another victim; the person she was trying to protect.”

“Another guess is that it was a person younger than Alice herself, as someone older than her would’ve tried to protect themselves, rather than seeking cover behind her.”

“What should we look for?”

“Possibly a girl around the age of twelve”, Harry says. “And that’s not entirely a guess”, he adds when Louis throws him a look. “It’s confirmed by scientific evidence. The size of the bruises, Louis.”

“I thought you hated guessing.”

“I do!” Harry protests.

“Babe, you don’t even like saying someone was murdered when there’s basically a note on their head saying _I was murdered._ ”

“That’s not true. And you called me babe.”

“Whatever, let’s just go for a coffee upstairs, keep Mike and Cal company.”

“Did you know too much coffee can be the cause of insomnia?”

“Shut up.”

❄

“Louis, you should really try the green tea, it’s lovely”, Harry says, sipping from his own tea casually.

“For the last time, Harold, I like my coffee. Do I need to spell it out for you?” They’re still bickering over what’s better (Harry insists on green tea, Louis says the opposite) when Louis’ phone rings. “Tomlinson, Boston police department”, he answers with.

“We have another victim”, Ashton tells him.

“Isn’t Zayn back on duty yet?”

He hears his half-brother sigh loudly. “No, Zayn is not back on duty yet. He took the week off. D’you wanna hear about the victim or would you like to keep yelling at me?”

“Yelling at you is pretty tempting but I’d like to hear about the victim, yes”, Louis says calmly, taking a sip of his coffee. There’s nothing he loves more than annoying the hell out of Ashton. Or maybe he loves his coffee more. It’s a tough choice.

“You’re a dick. Just get your ass to the corner of Eleventh and Tenth.” And he hangs up. How rude, Louis thinks.

“You know, you should really stop pestering your brother”, a now pink-haired Michael says. “He’s a nice guy.”

“He’s my half-brother.”

“Proves my point.”

“Just get me another coffee, Flamingo.” Louis throws a sugar cube at Michael’s head.

Michael throws it right back. “Get it yourself, dickhead.”

“Can’t you two be nice to each other for, you know, just an hour?” Harry sighs. He throws his empty cup in the trash and puts on his trench coat.

“No, we can’t and Jesus Christ, Harold, we’re going to a crime scene, not a fashion show.”

“I like looking fashionable, thank you. Shall we?”

Louis mumbles an inaudible sentence (probably an insult directed at Harry) before he refills his coffee and stuffs his phone in his pocket. “Well, let’s go then, Mr Fashion.”

❄

Another young girl with a note on her chest. Again addressed to Harry. _The time is nearing._ What the hell does that mean? Oh right, this ‘revenge’ the killer was talking about. “Harry, take a look at this girl. Could she be the girl Alice was protecting when she died?”

“I don’t like guessing”, Harry says.

“We all know you don’t and we won’t hold it against you”, Niall says flatly, having gone over this at least a dozen times, as has Louis. Louis throws his best friend a pointed look and Harry gives in.

“Fine. She’s about twelve years old and yes, she could be the girl our other victim was protecting. I can’t tell you more about the cause of death until I’ve done an autopsy.”

“Thank you, Harry. That wasn’t too hard, was it?” Louis says teasingly but he can see Harry’s a bit shaken up by the murders and the notes addressed to him. “Horan, did she have an ID on her?” Niall shakes his head. “Okay, I’ll have Ashton search our databases for missing girls that match her description. Harry, see if you can find her dental records or run her fingerprints, yeah?”

“Louis”, Niall says suddenly, tapping his arm urgently. “There’s the guy again.” Louis follows Niall’s glance to the guy on the side of their crime scene. Louis has to admit, he looks suspicious. And he’s not very subtle either. It’s like he’s trying to get their attention. When he sees he’s got it, he lifts one corner of his mouth in a wicked smile and Louis is quick to connect the dots.

“Get down!” he yells, pushing Niall to the ground and pulling out his own gun. There’s screaming around them when they hear shots and Louis rolls over, out of their shooting range. Niall’s right at his side and some uniforms have got their guns ready as well. He waits for the right moment before jumping out from behind the car he was using as a hiding place and takes one well-aimed shot at the shooter. It turns out to be enough. The shooter falls off the roof and, with a sickening crash, on the streets below. That’ll be another body for Harry to look at, Louis thinks with a deep sigh.

But when he looks around, Harry is nowhere in sight. “Harry? Niall, have you seen Harry?”

“Not since we were shot at, why?”

“Because I don’t see him anywhere and I doubt he’s gone back to the station while we were being shot at.”

“Fuck.” Fuck indeed, Louis thinks.

❄

“Where’s Harry?” Ashton asks when they return to the station without the chief medical examiner. No one says anything and Louis just gives his half-brother a dejected look. “What happened?”

“We got ambushed”, Niall says eventually when no one else answers. “We were at the crime scene and I spotted the mystery guy again so I warned Louis and he was quick enough to realize it was an ambush. We got shot at but Louis took the guy down with one shot. No one got hurt but when we went to look for Harry, he was gone. We suspect someone took him.”

Ashton stares at him. “Is this some kind of prank the two of you are pulling on me because I’m new to homicide?”

“Really, Ashton?” Louis snaps. “Our friend and colleague has disappeared and you think we’re pulling a prank on you? Harry wouldn’t even go along with it if we managed to come up with something this ridiculous in the first place.”

“Well, we need to go find him.” Louis resists the urge to hit his half-brother.

“Oh no, I thought we would just stay here and wait until the abductor delivers him back on our doorstep”, he snarls. Niall, always the peace keeper, gently guides Louis to a chair and sits him down. Louis absolutely refuses to break down. His best friend is missing and he can’t afford to have a good cry now because every minute he wastes, the chance that Harry’s still alive gets smaller and smaller. He also refuses to think about what Harry could be going through right now.

“Okay, what are the facts?” Ashton says.

“We last saw him just before the shooting”, Niall tells him.

“He received letters from a murderer, saying _it is revenge_.”

“We should look into old cases Harry testified in against a killer”, Ashton suggests.

“Now you’re saying something useful, little brother”, Louis says. He rolls his chair to his desk and searches for Harry’s name. “Someone should stay available to pick up the phone in case the abductor calls. Niall, can you do that? Ash, can you call doctor Sheeran to perform the autopsy on the girl from yesterday?”

“Sure thing, Lou”, Ashton says and Niall’s already at his desk next to the phone. “We’ll find him, you know”, he says quietly when he’s done calling. “We’re gonna get him back in one piece.” Louis smiles weakly at him. That’s all he can manage right now. He scrolls through old cases until he finds something useful. A shooting incident in a café in which Harry was a witness. Three dead and the shooter was caught because Harry could ID him.

“Ashton, can you look up this name for me? Aiden Watson? He’s a possible suspect.” He hears Ashton typing and scrolling before he answers.

“Aiden Watson, 35. Criminal record…. Harassment, shooting incident in a café in September ’11, did 15 years in jail for that.”

“Where is he now?”

“He was let out last year for good behaviour. Lives on the other side of town.”

“I say we pay him a visit. Niall, can you put someone on phone duty? We’ll be needing you”, Louis says and Niall nods, calling over a young officer and assigning him the important task of monitoring the phone in case the abductor calls.

❄

Louis just hopes Harry is alive and well. It’s been five hours since his disappearance and he knows that the sooner they find him, the smaller the chance is that he’s harmed, or worse; dead.

“It’s not very likely that Watson’s keeping Harry at his house”, Niall warns him when Ashton parks the car but they pull their guns anyway and kick in the door. “Boston police!”

The house is empty. Of course. In fact, it doesn’t look like someone lives there at all. Louis feels disappointed and he’s also getting more and more desperate. They need to find Harry. Louis had just put away his gun when he hears a thud coming from somewhere in the house. “Ash”, he hisses. “Did you hear that?” Ashton’s pulling his gun again so he assumes his half-brother heard it too.

It takes them a while but eventually, they find it. Cleverly hidden underneath the sink in the kitchen is a trapdoor which leads to a basement. They carefully climb in, Louis first.

“So you found us”, a slightly hysterical voice says. “Close the trapdoor and drop your guns.” It’s Aiden Watson but he doesn’t look like the pictures Ashton showed Louis earlier. Clearly, the years in prison haven’t done him any good. He has a long, messy beard and his hair looks like it hasn’t been cut in ages. “Do it or I’ll shoot him!”

It’s only now that Louis sees Harry, hair messy and a frightened expression on his face. He also has a bloody nose and a gun pointed at his head. “Harry!”

“Do it!” Watson screams and Louis slowly puts down his gun, urging Niall and Ashton to do the same. Nothing can happen to Harry. “See, I told you your _friends_ would come.” Watson spits out the word _friends_ like Louis would pronounce ‘serial killer’ or ‘broccoli’. “The small one cares far more about you than either of you would ever admit.” The small one. That would be me, Louis thinks.

“And how do you happen to have discovered that?” he asks calmly.

“Do you really think I would abduct someone without doing my homework?” Watson snaps. “Please, I’m not an amateur.”

“Did you kill those girls too? And leave the notes?”

“Of course.” He looks sickeningly proud of himself. “I even warned you I’d abduct your friend here. Couldn’t have been more considerate, really.”

“Your friend the shooter is dead though. Wanna be even more considerate and tell us his name?” Niall pipes up.

“Nah, that makes it too easy. ‘S gotta be a bit of excitement in it, right?”

It disturbs Louis how calmly this guy can talk about murder and even smile about it. “Why the girls?” he asks. “You didn’t deliver them on our doorstep immediately after they died.”

“To be honest, I didn’t plan on using them for that yet. At first, I wanted to repay their parents for testifying against me. Pretty easy to find out their names and subsequently, where they lived. I kept them here for about a month and then I grew tired of hearing their crying so I took them out one by one. The oldest did defend herself, I must say. I couldn’t get rid of them yet so I kept them in my fridges for quite a while. And then I saw Harry here on the streets and I found a purpose for the girls.” Louis feels Ashton moving slightly behind him and he moves as well, diving out of the way when his half-brother shoots. He hits Watson in the leg and the killer screams and drops his own gun. Ashton and Niall are quick to pin him down to the floor and Louis hurries to get to Harry. He undoes the ropes around his wrists and pulls him into a hug.

“Hey babe, are you okay?” he asks softly, rubbing Harry’s back. The chief medical examiner sighs into his shoulder.

“I’ll be fine, just a bloody nose and a bit of trauma. I’m glad to see you.” Harry pulls back from their hug and looks at Louis with an indescribable emotion in his eyes.

“Lou, call for back-up, will ya?” Niall says, casually sitting on Watson while Ashton looks around in the basement.

“Sure! Come on, babe, let’s wait outside for the ambulance and the uniforms to arrive.” He takes Harry’s hand and together, they go outside. “Are you really okay, love?”

Harry shakes his head. “I was terrified you wouldn’t find me in time.” He exhales shakily. “I was terrified, Lou. He told me horrid things about what he’d done and why he’d abducted me. He said it was revenge because I got him into jail.” He clutches Louis’ hand and Louis feels him shaking.

“It’s okay, love, you’re safe now. We got you.” He pulls him in another tight hug before calling the station over the police radio and tells them to send an ambulance as well. “That idiot will be back where he belongs – jail and hopefully a mental institution after that.”

Harry is looking at him with that look again and Louis hears him whisper “fuck it” before he moves in and kisses him passionately. Louis kisses him back because _of course_ , this is lovable and friendly Harry who he’s worked with ever since he got promoted to homicide. And he has come the conclusion, in the past few hours, that he loves Harry. Proper loves him.

“What was that for?” Louis asks breathlessly when they finally let go of each other.

“I decided to come clean about my not so small crush on you because I could’ve died in there and then you never would’ve known”, Harry says in all earnest.

“Well, I’m glad you did because I’ve had a crush on you for ages.” They both have large smiles on their faces and they’re still looking at each other lovingly when the uniforms and the ambulance arrive.

“Oh, for God’s sake!” Malik exclaims. “Took you two long enough!”

They ignore him. “Shall we get a coffee after I’m done being checked by the ambulance staff?” Harry suggests.

“Never thought I’d hear you say you wanted coffee. I’ll take a green tea then.” Louis winks and they both know they’re going to be fine. Together.

**Author's Note:**

> MY ENDINGS ARE SO CHEESY SOMEONE TEACH ME HOW TO WRITE A COOL ENDING PLS
> 
>  
> 
> anywayyy let me know what you think?


End file.
